“Every spring, the cycle of growth begins in a similar way: flat and dull leaf litter, the first small green shoots, followed by the bright and tiny faces of the Spring Beauties. So hard to spot, but a joy when found. Spring has arrived to the forest floor.” – Ed Lehming

This tiny, often missed, spring ephemeral is what I look for as soon as the temperatures warm. It’s the first flower to bloom after Colt’s Foot. The blooming of Spring Beauties signals the start of the greater spring bloom. They are small, often pail, blossoms that hug the ground, not easy to spot, but once you see one you begin to notice them all over the place. As soon as I see them, I begin to look for other spring bloomers like Blue Cohosh, Hepatica, Wild Ginger, Meadow Rue, and Trilliums.

This year has been a bit different, since I spotted Hepatica blossoms at the end of March and could find no sign of other blossoms till last week. But, the bloom is on and this flower was surrounded by Trillium shoots pushing out from under the tightly packed leaf litter. The litter seems particularly compressed this year, but there is nothing stopping the flush of green now emerging. In the next few days, if temperatures remain mild, I expect to see the first few Trilliums in bloom.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/250 sec, f/14, ISO 800